Monday, November 9, 2009

Tuscany, Florence, and Rome!

The next day we woke up EARLY and waited for the sun to come up. haha. Once it did we hit the road! We rented a sweet ride and drove all day...

(Oh, and when I say we, I really just mean James drove all day, I couldn't be bothered)


And enjoyed the beautiful Italian countryside!



Let me just tell you that the drive through Tuscany was beyond beautiful!


We are planning to build one of our homes in Tuscany when we are filthy rich.



We made a pit stop in Florence. Do you see anything wrong with this vehicle?





The streets in Florence were crazy cramped, but James was a freaking rockstar driver! It was very sexy...




We saw this statue at a park so we pulled in for a closer look.


Sadly, we didn't have much time to stay in Florence because we wanted to get to Rome as soon as possible and we (James) had been driving all day and we were tired.
So..this brings us to the longest night of our lives. Getting hopelessly lost trying to find our car rental return in Rome, long train ride to metro station, almost getting in with a scary "cab driver" who was for sure going to kill or rob us, long metro ride to the freaking scary bus station on the wrong side of town, looong bus ride (twice because we missed our stop the first time), Cindy almost crying when we learned we had missed our bus stop and because it was past midnight in a strange city and we don't speak Italian. After all that, we rolled into our hostel (thirty minutes outside of Rome, just past midnight.
We just pushed our twin beds together and sacked right out.

Things always look better the next day (in the daylight). Here we are on our bus driving into the city.



Our first glimpse of Vatican City!




And they were having some convention thing so we got to see something kind of cool...

Do you see that little white dot there in the middle? That is the Pope my friends!


James and I on our tour bus.

Just about our favorite part of Rome...The Colosseum!!



We got a tour and it was awesome! We learned alot of history. Just for the record...The movie Gladiator was not all historically correct. haha!


Awesome!!!


James's boyfriend.

Sorry, there are lots of pictures with our arm in the picture!


The Pantheon! I loved the outside of this building...soo cool!




Our outdoor cafe we ate at, right across from the Pantheon.




I got the spinach and ricotta cannoli's...mmm good!

Here is James's picture of the "Best Lasagna of his life" just before he scarfed it!



James and I at the Vatican Museum.


The Awe-Inspiring Sistine Chapel. AWESOME!!!


This is a fortress used to protect the Pope's during time of war.



It was really cool, we had lots of fun here!


On the Rooftop of the fortress (We just call it the Fortress because we can't remember the name of it.)


Us on the top of the Fortress with Vatican City behind us!



St. Peter's Bascillica!



And introducing...
A Photoshoot at the Vatican!!!

Hot #@$N!


Umbrella's make any picture a hundred times cooler!






Unfortunatley we had to leave Rome on Jet plane to Paris! So this is our hostel, once again, for your viewing pleasure...

This is actually two twin beds, pushed together.



Nothing like traveling through Europe on a budget!

Our "Bungalow!"

We LOVED Rome! It was our favorite place we saw in Italy! But we may need to go back to Italy to make a more fair judgement...
Next up...PARIS!!!


5 comments:

Brooke said...

I love the photoshoot pictures. You're so right about the umbrella. And can I stay at your house in Tuscany when you're at one of your other many houses? (Of course, if you're there when I'm there that's ok, too, as long as I'm there!) :)

Bekah and Lance said...

Love seeing all your photos! Too bad you didn't get to see much of Florence - it was one of my favorite places and had tons of great street vendors to baragain with. Glad James was driving - Italian drivers are crazy! Well most European's actually! And when you are filthy rich can you fly us on your private jet to your house in Tuscany? :) Thanks!

Cindy said...

Ha, ha, ha!! Yes to both of you!

The Romney Family said...

Well, sheesh, that's some mission revisitation! I'm totally jealous. I used to go on super cool trips too, but then I got married. How is it that you managed to get married and still do that kind of thing?! I need to learn that trick... It was a lot easier for me when Mom & Dad were footing the bill. haha

Oh, and in answer to your question, we'll be in Maryland for basically all of next summer, probably May through part of August. Two months for the internship and an extra month for good measure--gotta squeeze in some laketime, you know? (Um, I mean, and family time, of course...)

Woolcott Family said...

Gorgeous! Simply, absolutely gorgeous! I want to see the rest of the 800+ pictures!!